Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/52

44 condemn it, are accused of wishing to degrade woman into the condition of a mere household drudge. But this is altogether a false issue. A household drudge, and a woman who rightly governs in her own family, are very different. But it is not to be concealed that no woman can properly govern in her family, and lead a life of idleness. The one is incompatible with the other. She can no more do it than a man can carry on his business successfully without industry and attention. To prepare himself to do this, a man has, early in life, to spend years in attaining to a full and practical knowledge of that calling in life by which he expects to sustain himself and all who may be dependent on him; and the same must be true of every woman. Her sphere of use is in the domestic and home circle, and she must pass through a like course of preparation, or she will be no more able to discharge her duties efficiently, when the time comes for her to assume them, than he would be to discharge his duties, if he were alike neglectful.

The simplest mode of viewing this matter may be, perhaps, in a comparison of what a man has to do in business and a woman at home, and to decide whether the one is more burdensome and less honorable than the other. We will take a